Conrete Angel
by 7Seven7
Summary: 8 year old Casey Novak carries her secret to the grave. A touching story about child abuse based on the Martina Mcbride song. features all your favorite SVU-ers. please review! depending on how you look at it, it's a happy ending within a tragedy.


**A/N: Some of this may look familiar, it's because it's a re-write of another story I had by the same title. I fixed some errors and added a lot. It's a lot better than the first one, about midway through is where I started writing new stuff. I recommend going on youtube and watching the music video for Martina Mcbride's Concrete Angel, it's amazing. Please review!**

_She walks to school with the lunch she packed  
>Nobody knows what she's holding back<br>Wearing the same dress she wore yesterday  
>She hides the bruises with the linen and lace<em>

An eight year old Casey Novak walked down the steps of her house in a suburb outside of New York City. She pulled her long sleeved tee shirt further down her arm, so it ended midway past her hand. Her sister had taught her that trick. She wasn't sure if she loved her sister, Alex (who was actually her half-sister as a result of her mother's first marriage). She taught her so many tricks to get through the pain, but when push came to shove, Alex always found a way to be out of the house, leaving Casey to take the blows. She walked the two blocks from her house, where she caught up with her friend from school, Fin.

"Hey Casey, how was your weekend?" he asked

_It sucked. On Friday, My dad came home only to find out that I hadn't folded the laundry yet. I sure paid for that. Alex slept over her friend's house all weekend. She's never a help to me anymore. _"Fine. You?" I say.

"Alright. I finally beat my brother at basketball, but he's convinced he let me win. He so did not!" Fin said as he gave me a playful punch on the arm, it wasn't very hard, but it hurt like a mother.

"Ouch! Don't do that Odafin!" I scold.

"Geese Casey, so-rry. I didn't think it was that hard. And don't call me Odafin."

"Oh please, you only want to be called Fin 'cause your cousin calls you that and you act like he's Jesus"

"You know he plays COLLEDGE basketball, hockey, and lacrosse, right? Do you have any idea how cool that is? Oh, forget it Casey. You wouldn't understand. You stink at sports."

_Not true, I rule softball when it doesn't hurt to move. _I sigh.

"Oh come on, THAT didn't hurt your feelings, did it? Because I didn't mean it. I was just sayin' it. You're fine at, um, math"

"One, math's not a sport. Two, I'm not mad at you. I'm just…tired."

"You're ALWAYS tired. And- hey, what happened to your face?" Fin asked. He reached out and touched my left cheek. I remembered what happened to it. I was kind of mad. Alex usually does a better make-up job.

"Oh, that. I, umm, fell" I stammered out.

"You FELL? On your face? What happened to your arms, forget they were there?"

I sighed. "Come on, we're gonna be late"

0O0

_The teacher wonders but she doesn't ask  
>It's hard to see the pain behind the mask<br>Bearing the burden of a secret storm  
>Sometimes she wishes she was never born<em>

"Casey?" Mr. Cragen, my science teacher, asked.

"Yes?"

"Can I see you in the hall?"

"Um, sure" I say as my face gets red and everyone stares at me.

"Don't worry, you're not in trouble" he said with a smile. The majority of the class lost interest after that, with the exception of a few people; Dean, who still felt the need to trip me on my way to the door and a couple of my friends who exchanged worried and confused glances- a perfect student like Casey Novak was never called into the hall.

"Casey, what happened to your face?" he asked when we were in the hall. I touched my cheek- it hurt to be touched. I heard Alex's words in my mind, _you have to make it believable. It can't always be 'I fell'. That's how people get suspicious. But it can't be unrealistic like 'I fell off my pony'._

"I was playing catch with my sister, and I missed and the ball hit me" I said. He studied me for a minute and then found my excuse acceptable. I was dismissed form the hallway and allowed back in class. I found a note in my desk.

**What was that about?** Olivia's handwriting.

I turned around to face her and gave her a shrug. She saw through that though. She gave me a face that told me she'd expect the full story later. Great, just what I needed. Another person poking into my personal life. It's so embarrassing, having to hide this, having all these people asking all these questions. I wish I could just… escape. Disappear.

0O0

_Somebody cries in the middle of the night,  
>The neighbors hear but they turn out the light<br>A fragile soul caught in the hands of fate  
>When morning comes it will be too late<em>

Elliot Stabler sat in his bedroom as he attempted to fall asleep. It was totally silent, accept for the cries he could hear coming from outside. He got out of bed to investigate. He realized it was his neighbor and good friend Casey whom the cries belonged to. He immediately ran to his parent's bedroom.

"Mom! Dad!" he said as he jumped onto their bed.

"What is it?" Mrs. Stabler asked worried.

"I think something's wrong with Casey" Elliot said

"Casey Novak? Why do you think that?" his mother asked.

"I can hear her crying from my room"

"Oh, Betty, that girl's been acting so odd lately, she's probably just going through that moody phase" Elliot's father said dismissively.

"Carl, she's eight. Isn't that a bit young to be going through that phase?" Betty Stabler said

"I guess so, but she's fine. Just ask her if she's okay at school tomorrow" Mr. Stabler told his son.

"Your father's right, Dear, go to sleep. You can see Casey in the morning" Mrs. Stabler added. Elliot stalked off to his room, defeated.

_Through the wind and the rain she stands hard as a stone  
>In a world that she can't rise above<br>But her dreams give her wings and she flies to a place  
>Where she's loved<em>

As Casey took blow after blow from her father, she tried to think of her safe place. This was an imaginary land, where she was safe from her father. In this land, she had a different family- one that appreciated her. This family had a daddy that read her stories and tucked her in at night and a mommy who made her a sandwich with the crust cut off, like the other kid's moms did for them. In this land, she was loved.

Casey found herself losing consciousness as her beating continued. She never really had thought about death. It wasn't something she had experienced with a family member or anyone close to her had ever really talked about. All she knew was that you went to a new place, a place totally different from earth. She could only hope that place was like her safe place. She wanted so bad to meet the mommy and daddy she had dreamt of.

_A statue stands in a shaded place  
>An angel girl with an upturned face<br>A name is written on a polished rock  
>A broken heart that the world forgot<em>

The Stablers, Bensons, Tutuolas, Cragens, and a few other families that had known Casey Novak gathered in Saint Augustine cemetery to say a final goodbye to the girl they barely had said hello to, before she was taken away from this world.

The children were having trouble understanding that their friend wasn't going to be in school, on walks, available to play. She was gone.

The adults were having trouble understanding that this girl was being abused and no one had ever noticed.

Her sister and mother were having trouble realizing he'd actually done it- he'd really killed one of them.

_Through the wind and the rain she stands hard as a stone  
>In a world that she can't rise above<br>But her dreams give her wings and she flies to a place  
>Where she's loved concrete angel<em>

Casey found herself in a place she didn't recognize, but it was beautiful. A lovely garden full of the prettiest flowers she'd ever seen. she didn't remember how she got there, but she didn't really care. She found herself next to a small stream and decided to survey the damage her father had done to her. But what she found left her astonished.

She had no bruises on her body- fresh or old. Her skin was clear for the first time in a long while. Then she noticed another thing- her usual soreness was gone. She was completely free of all pain and injury. She turned around to see a woman standing behind her. The woman's presence made her feel safe. She no longer felt afraid, or tired, or sore. She simply felt… at peace. She was perfectly content for the first time since she could remember… she was even, happy. It was then that she realized, this woman was her safe place mommy, the one she had wished for all her life. The woman took her hand and led her to a place where she was happy and peaceful forever, and permanently safe from her father's wrath.

0o0

A/N: I envisioned this to be the heaven that she goes to, but I've never died so this is just my creative take on death. This was going to be a tragedy, but real life has enough of those so I decided that at least one abused child deserved a happy ending.

Please review and let me know what you think! I would really appreciate it!


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